Work, Work and More Work!

Well, 2 days ago Jay and I decided to get started on the cleaning and inspection of the standing rigging wire, blocks, becket cams and etc. (for "land lubbers" this means the big, fat cables that hold your mast upright and steady it in heavy winds and seas).  While inspecting the head blocks we discovered two of our fiddle blocks are made of aluminum with stainless steel snap shackles---so boy oh boy, did we have some serious electrolylis and corrosion going on! We have two fiddle head blocks and two becket cams. Just checked the West Marine catalog and fiddle head blocks prices ruin from approx. $100-350 EACH and the ones with the becket cams are over $200 each......we might double check and make sure if we REALLY NEED new ones or can assure ourselves that these "will do" until we are in friendlier boating market areas.....now today we get to spray all the rigging, put the color on it, then the "developer" on it to see if we have any serious issues with the cables. Kinda waiting til the sun comes out.

Wondering about our newest boating friends, Steve and Lulu and if they made it out of Winchester Bay----we were glad to see Sunday when we drove down to see them that they still had that "boating spirit" even after experiencing the roller coaster-like ride south they made on their 1st toe of their trip.

Can't wait to leave on our "vacation!" (and anyway what are we "vacating?"-----and where did that word come from anyway? I know the British call such a trip "Going on a Holiday," and I think that better sums up the concept.....vacating sounds like an end of sorts and Holiday sounds like a plan for FUN! I am all for FUN!!!!!!!! Gotta talk Jay into being funner....ha ha or at least be willing to do MORE FUN THINGS! I can't believe I am living with a man who works as hard as my dad, Joe Kinworthy, used to work and who likes to act as Commander of the world and get me to work right along side him (or else suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune...) ha ha....But you know, outside in the salt sea air with the sunshine on my face working on as one freind called it "an outrageously fantastic" yacht----life is good. I have never been so happy in my life----now if I can just get phone calls, letters, emails, text messages or Ham radio messages from my wonderful girls, Moriah Wickstrom, Annie Mason, Darcie Pelsor (soon to become Darcie Alexander....and what a great name Darcie Alexander sounds somehow sophisticated and cool......love you and Walter Dartle!) and Alana Jane, my baby girl.....then life would be way sweeter!!!!!! I'm not so good at this leaving the kids and my grandkids behind! How do people like Dave and Barbara Janssen do it, going to Guam with Jen and Julian so far away??????-----Do they even know how much we think of them many times a day?????? It was bad enough when I moved to Eugene and they were all in So. Oregon! But I did get Alana and Mikey to move up when he was a baby and live near me for 6 months....but alas, Alana's allergies/sinuses didn't like the Eugene area and jobs were better for them in Medford, so they left me again.....I was sooooooooo sad to lose my baby girl.....I thought I would get to keep her up here forever!!!!! Then Alana moved back for a while with Mikey when Aunt Sharen lived here and it was wonderful being able to hug everyone......but I guess the girls all have their own lives now and maybe don't have much time to think about parents.....it's funny, I think, that I had a pretty sad home life growing up, yet as an adult I would go visit mom when she moved to Shady Cove sometimes 3x a week when my three oldest were in elementary school and I talked to Dad and visited him with his girlfriends/wives when they came thru Oregon on their excursions in their RV--and visited them numerous times when they were out on the road....just so I could give my "Daddy-Do" a big hug and hear his stories about his latest antics or worst jokes! It's like I didn't get along with  my parents when I lived with them....but became close to them when I became an adult. THEN.....not wanting to be like MY parents I hoped I was raising my girls to feel more loved and closer to me.......and I thought, except for pretty typical teen age issues and problems that we all go thru in life that bring us sadness and pain sometimes thru no fault of our own, I thought especially in the last couple of years that I was on pretty good footing, relationship-wise, with all my girls.....but I wish I could see and hear from them more......hey, I've got a plan...now this might work......if I take off on a yacht to a beautiful tropical island, then PERHAPS I can "lure" my girls and grandchildren to visit me cause it will be beautiful, warm and wayyyyyyyyyy fun seeing mom/grandma!@!!!!!!!!!! I am going to start working on this plan........Annie, I'm in Cabo San Lucas.....can you come clean my teeth? ha ha......I really think this might work....